(The world needs more free thinkers like Diane. I always found her refreshing)—LWH

Diane Von Furstenberg shared her side of the story after her husband Barry Diller shared he dated only men before his now 50-plus year relationship with the fashion designer began. 

By OLIVIA EVANS

Diane von Furstenberg has nothing to add about her husband Barry Diller’s sexuality. 

After the fashion designer’s husband—to whom she has been married for 24 years—came out as gay following years of speculation in his March 2025 memoir Who Knew, she emphasized that not a thing has changed about their dynamic. 

“What’s the difference?” Diane—who has been romantically involved with Barry since the late 1970s—asked Variety in an interview published Oct. 16. “I don’t understand. But it doesn’t change anything. I’m sorry—it’s a stupid question.”

The 78-year-old also acknowledged her three-year marriage with Prince Egon von Fürstenberg, who opened up on his bisexuality after the former couple’s separation in 1972 (the couple did not finalize their divorce until 1983). 

“I married two gay men, OK?” Diane continued. “I don’t know why, but to me, they’re not gay, so it doesn’t make any difference.”

Indeed, the wrap dress inventor doesn’t see standing by Barry as “supporting him” through something. 

“People see it that way,” she admitted. “For me, it’s not that way. I don’t know. Yes, I encouraged him to do that book.”

However, Diane insisted that Barry’s Who Knew memoir was not meant to be defined by his coming out. 

“For me, the book is not about that,” she explained. “It’s about his life. And of course, with me, he opened immediately. For 50 years, I was the only person he opened to. Then he wrote the book.”

Of course, Diane did note that she didn’t initially think her relationship with Barry would become romantic. 

“He turned out to be my soulmate. I didn’t think of it at first,” she confessed. “I was interested in being a good friend; I never thought it would be anything else. Then it turned to passion. He was very insistent.”

For Barry’s part, he was just as stunned by his attraction to Diane. 

“I can’t explain it to myself or to the world,” Barry wrote in his memoir. “It simply happened to both of us without motive or manipulation. In some cosmic way we were destined for each other.”

Indeed, Barry felt urges just as strong for Diane as he felt for past male lovers. 

“When my romance with Diane began, I never questioned that its biological imperative was as strong in its heterosexuality as its opposite had been,” he detailed. “When it happened, my initial response was, ‘Who knew?’

(I was one of the early readers of Barry’s book. I loved every word of it. Brutally honest and very daring)—LWH